The "Blair Legacy", in terms of economics, should really be the "Thatcher Legacy". Blair and Brown saw that the mood of the country had changed and that voters saw the traditional Labour model as out of date and inapplicable, hence they switched to "whatever works" to lose the old tax-and-spend image. Tax had become a dirty word and remains so. However, without taxation, provision of services has to be cut, dropped or privatised. Unfortunately, the "Me" mentality still prevails and too many are of the the "Why should I" persuasion to get a consensus of joint responsibility. Even economies that were functioning social democratic models were seduced by Thatcherite ideals and are now seeing widening inequality and increasing poverty.
We must not forget where most of the debt came from, i.e. largely unfettered banking spivvery. So far, I've heard a lot of rhetoric but seen no action from the coalition about this (and about tax avoidance), instead they are taking a wrecking ball to the remaining skeleton of collective provision.
What is government for? Is it to ensure the benefit of the whole nation or is its purpose to subjugate the nation as a cash-cow for the few?
Back on topic, to describe the current state of the House of Lords as the "Blair Legacy" is utterly vacuous. At least Blair made a start, but the coalition have since simply stuffed the place with more unelected yes-men than ever before.
Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice. Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.
Joined: May 10 2002 Posts: 47951 Location: Die Metropole
El Barbudo wrote:Yes, 117. Great isn't it, that without a majority from an election you can just shape the upper house how you wish? Isn't democracy wonderful?
Lovely.
"You are working for Satan." Kirkstaller
"Dare to know!" Immanuel Kant
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive" Elbert Hubbard
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde
Joined: May 25 2002 Posts: 37704 Location: Zummerzet, where the zoider apples grow
El Barbudo wrote:Fair point. I don't know how you could regulate the proportion of time spent but, if other work was all open for scrutiny, at least voters could see when election time comes around again.
We could start with making them clock on and off, both in Parliament and their constituencies
The older I get, the better I was
Advice is what we seek when we already know the answer - but wish we didn't
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ kirkstaller wrote: "All DNA shows is that we have a common creator."
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin." - Aneurin Bevan
Mintball wrote:Just thinking about this and realised that I remember how, in the mid to late '80s, you'd go into a shop and they'd be nearly throwing credit at you. It was a real culture change.
Of course they would. It encourages you to spend in their shop and pay HIGH finance charges to them too if you're slow at paying. They particularly liked those with "sucker" written on their forehead.
Joined: May 10 2002 Posts: 47951 Location: Die Metropole
Dally wrote:Of course they would. It encourages you to spend in their shop and pay HIGH finance charges to them too if you're slow at paying. They particularly liked those with "sucker" written on their forehead.
Yes.
The point is that it was a culture change. And that the era of cheap credit did not start post 1997.
"You are working for Satan." Kirkstaller
"Dare to know!" Immanuel Kant
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive" Elbert Hubbard
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Oscar Wilde
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